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We develop an advanced mean field method for approximating averages in probabilistic data models that is based on the TAP approach of disorder physics. In contrast to conventional TAP, where the knowledge of the distribution of couplings…

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks · Physics 2009-11-07 Manfred Opper , Ole Winther

We describe a variational approximation method for efficient inference in large-scale probabilistic models. Variational methods are deterministic procedures that provide approximations to marginal and conditional probabilities of interest.…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2011-05-30 T. S. Jaakkola , M. I. Jordan

In numerous instances, the generalized exponential distribution can be used as an alternative to the most widely used non-regular family of distributions: Weibull, gamma, lognormal with three-parameters when analyzing lifetime or any skewed…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-03-03 Kiran Prajapat , Sharmishtha Mitra , Debasis Kundu

We study convergence rates of the generalized conditional gradient (GCG) method applied to fully discretized Mean Field Games (MFG) systems. While explicit convergence rates of the GCG method have been established at the continuous PDE…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2026-02-13 Haruka Nakamura , Norikazu Saito

We consider distributed estimation of the inverse covariance matrix, also called the concentration or precision matrix, in Gaussian graphical models. Traditional centralized estimation often requires global inference of the covariance…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2015-06-15 Zhaoshi Meng , Dennis Wei , Ami Wiesel , Alfred O. Hero

Probabilistic graphical models provide a powerful tool to describe complex statistical structure, with many real-world applications in science and engineering from controlling robotic arms to understanding neuronal computations. A major…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-05-04 Yicheng Fei , Xaq Pitkow

We present a new algorithm for approximate inference in probabilistic programs, based on a stochastic gradient for variational programs. This method is efficient without restrictions on the probabilistic program; it is particularly…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2013-01-08 David Wingate , Theophane Weber

Variational inference provides a powerful tool for approximate probabilistic in- ference on complex, structured models. Typical variational inference methods, however, require to use inference networks with computationally tractable proba-…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2017-11-01 Qiang Liu , Yihao Feng

The Mean Field Approximation (MFA), or continuum method, is often used in courses on Networks to derive the degree distribution of preferential attachment networks. This method is simple and the outcome is close to the correct answer.…

Physics and Society · Physics 2020-06-25 Matthijs Ruijgrok

This paper is concerned with the approximation of probability distributions known up to normalization constants, with a focus on Bayesian inference for large-scale inverse problems in scientific computing. In this context, key challenges…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-06-10 Baojun Che , Yifan Chen , Zhenghao Huan , Daniel Zhengyu Huang , Weijie Wang

Many problems arising in applications result in the need to probe a probability distribution for functions. Examples include Bayesian nonparametric statistics and conditioned diffusion processes. Standard MCMC algorithms typically become…

Computation · Statistics 2015-03-20 S. L. Cotter , G. O. Roberts , A. M. Stuart , D. White

While Bayesian methods are extremely popular in statistics and machine learning, their application to massive datasets is often challenging, when possible at all. Indeed, the classical MCMC algorithms are prohibitively slow when both the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2019-04-23 Pierre Alquier , James Ridgway

While Bayesian inference provides a principled framework for reasoning under uncertainty, its widespread adoption is limited by the intractability of exact posterior computation, necessitating the use of approximate inference. However,…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-05-19 George Whittle , Juliusz Ziomek , Jacob Rawling , Maike A. Osborne

We study a general factor analysis framework where the $n$-by-$p$ data matrix is assumed to follow a general exponential family distribution entry-wise. While this model framework has been proposed before, we here further relax its…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-12-02 Liang Wang , Luis Carvalho

We propose the novel augmented Gaussian random field (AGRF), which is a universal framework incorporating the data of observable and derivatives of any order. Rigorous theory is established. We prove that under certain conditions, the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2021-11-30 Sheng Zhang , Xiu Yang , Samy Tindel , Guang Lin

In this paper, we consider objective Bayesian inference of the generalized exponential distribution using the independence Jeffreys prior and validate the propriety of the posterior distribution under a family of structured priors. We…

Methodology · Statistics 2023-09-26 Aojun Li , Keying Ye , Min Wang

We revisit the replica method for analyzing inference and learning in parametric models, considering situations where the data-generating distribution is unknown or analytically intractable. Instead of assuming idealized distributions to…

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks · Physics 2025-11-17 Takashi Takahashi

A machine-learnable variational scheme using Gaussian radial basis functions (GRBFs) is presented and used to approximate linear problems on bounded and unbounded domains. In contrast to standard mesh-free methods, which use GRBFs to…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2024-10-10 Jonas A. Actor , Anthony Gruber , Eric C. Cyr , Nathaniel Trask

Generative Bayesian Filtering (GBF) provides a powerful and flexible framework for performing posterior inference in complex nonlinear and non-Gaussian state-space models. Our approach extends Generative Bayesian Computation (GBC) to…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-11-07 Edoardo Marcelli , Sean O'Hagan , Veronika Rockova

Inference is typically intractable in high-treewidth undirected graphical models, making maximum likelihood learning a challenge. One way to overcome this is to restrict parameters to a tractable set, most typically the set of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2015-11-02 Justin Domke